Number of attendees. About 6,000 ticketholders will don hats and long underwear to quaff brews outdoors, up from 5,850 in 2012. Add industry representatives, staff and their guests, and between 7,000 and 8,000 people could be on the grounds.

At last count, 74 breweries will be on hand, compared to 61 last year. Yes, they're all based in Michigan.

And don’t even try to sample every beer on hand. Even at three ounces each, it’s a logistical impossibility, considering there are 625 of them. That’s a staggering number (there were 452 last year), and you’ll be staggering if you only get to sip a small fraction of them. Feel free to look at the complete list - and be completely overwhelmed by it.

In other words, Winter Beer Fest is the Michigan beer scene in microcosm, the focal point of the state’s microbrew boom. Considering 2012 could be deemed The Year of the Beer in Grand Rapids – the city was voted Beer City USA in an online poll, releases of rare beers have met unprecedented demand and new breweries celebrated grand openings by promptly running out of product - it makes sense that one of the city’s suburbs is the destination for brewers and appreciators alike.

Brewers Guild director Scott Graham said the event’s popularity has exceeded that of the organization’s Summer Beer Festival, which will be held July 19-20 in Ypsilanti. The single-day Winter Beer Fest now outdraws the Saturday of the summer event, now in its 16th year.

Point out to Graham that the weather forecast for the more popular of the two fests calls for 30-degree temperatures and some possible snow flurries, and he laughs.

“It is sort of logic-defying,” he said.

“There are two reasons for that, though,” Graham added. “Southwest Michigan is a great craft-beer community. I also think people have less stuff on the calendar in winter. People aren’t as busy.”

Don’t expect the Winter Beer Fest to change dramatically in 2014 to meet demand, however. Graham said there are no plans to relocate the event, expand it to two days or to dramatically increase the number of tickets. Lines are already long enough, and keeping beer from freezing is always a logistical concern.